Hard surfaces such as floors, counters, walls, tables, and other things made of laminate, ceramic, and plastic materials need to be cleaned periodically of accumulated dirt, oil, grease, and other contaminants. The appearance of such hard surfaces after cleaning is very important to consumers. More particularly, not only must hard surface cleaning formulations provide a clean surface, but the cleaned surface should also be visually appealing, which typically means having a glossy or shiny appearance. Most importantly, the shiny appearance must be free of streaking or surface anomalies that detract from the glossy appearance. Industry has worked to develop hard surface cleaning formulations which provide good shine performance with no streaking.
For example, it is known that the use of polymer surfactants which comprise ethylene oxide and propylene oxide in hard surface cleaning formulations provide good cleaning results. Tokkai 2004-107586 (Tokugan 2002-275634) describes floor polish formulations containing polymer surfactants which include units derived from ethylene oxide (EO) and propylene oxide (PO) units and which were developed to replace tributoxy ethyl phosphate compounds as leveling agents for floor polish formulations. The OE-PO-based surfactants used in the floor polish formulations of Tokkai 2004-107586 provide some gloss, but result in streaking on the cleaned surfaces.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0152425 describes coating formulations comprising water insoluble polymers with acid functional residues, as well as one more leveling agents, also comprising EO and PO, and having the following formula:R—O—(—CH2—CH2—CH2—O—)x—(—CH2—CH2—O—)y—H
where x=0.5 to 10, y=2 to 20, and R is a mixture of two or more linear alkyl moieties having an even number of carbon atoms between 4 and 20. The coating formulations described in US2011/0152425 also fail to provide streak-free coatings on cleaned hard surfaces.
Industry would welcome cleaning formulations for application to hard surfaces that provide clean, smooth, streak-free surfaces. It is important that such cleaning formulations spread evenly when applied to hard surfaces. It is also desirable that the cleaning formulations are clear and remain stable during storage.